Darwin exhibition in the Faculty Garden all summer - 16.06.2009

This year marks 150 years since the publication of Darwin’s seminal work On the Origin of Species which revolutionised biology. 2009 also marks 151 years since the creation of the protected garden at LIFE- Faculty of Life Sciences at University of Copenhagen. Over the last 150 years, Darwin’s work has had enormous influence on the applied research into plants and animals all over the world. To celebrate the anniversary, LIFE opens a special outdoor exhibition, The Origin of Cultivated Species, where Copenhageners and visitors to Copenhagen can experience an exciting selection of the plant species that Darwin discusses in his works.

 

The exhibition The Origin of Cultivated Species opens on Friday 19 June and runs all summer, until 18 October. At the opening on 19 June, researchers will serve juice from new species of berries, and tell the audience how far science has come in the development of plants (please see the programme below).

 

At LIFE-Faculty of Life Sciences, researchers and other staff are delighted to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of Darwin’s seminal work On the Origin of Species.

- A very large part of today’s life science research is based on Darwin’s theory on the development of species from a common descent, for instance our research into the cause of a genetic disease. In his theory of natural selection, Darwin gave many examples of domestic animals and plants and thereby provided a breeding ground, as it were, for the emergent scientification of plants and animals in agriculture and forestry on which LIFE is based. It is, therefore, no coincidence that Darwin and LIFE celebrate their anniversary at almost the same time, says associate professor at LIFE, Thure Hauser.

 

Further than Darwin could have dreamed about

In addition to celebrating Darwin and his great work, the exhibition will provide the public with an opportunity to see how far we have come in the field of biology:

 

- There are many things that Darwin did not know about, genetics for example. Here at LIFE, we are proud to have had Wilhelm Johannsen who was the first scientist to distinguish between the effects of heredity and environment. Today, genetic research has come much further than Darwin could have dreamed about, primarily because of another revolutionary discovery in the field of biology: the DNA, continues Thure Hauser.

 

The exhibition in the garden at LIFE-Faculty of Life Sciences, at Frederiksberg, shows a selection of the cultivated species and the variation that Darwin discussed in his works. The garden is full of examples of the diversity that we humans have bred over the years from a lesser number of wild parents.

 

Flower bed to celebrate Charles Darwin’s 200^th birthday

Charles Darwin was the son of a British doctor and was born 200 years ago, in 1809. To supplement the exhibition and to honour Charles Darwin, the Faculty’s gardeners have planted a bed of flowers that celebrates his theory.

 

The idea and the drawings for the bed were made by Kim Greiner, Head Gardener of the Faculty Garden. The practical creation of the bed was made in cooperation with gardener Gitte Arrild.

 

850 small and large houseleeks have been used to form the figures, and about 1,050 Lobularia “Ester Bonnet Deep Rose” provide the background. Furthermore the bed is edged with around 150 Anagallis “Skylover”, a total of 2,050 plants. The bed can be found in the middle of the garden at the large temple tree east of the little lake.

Visitors to the garden who wish to know more about Darwin and the exhibition can buy a Danish booklet or a poster in the greenhouse café Café Væksthuset in the garden. From the end of June an English leaflet will also be available to visitors.

 

For more information, please contact associate professor Thure Pavlo Hauser at tel. + 45 353 32818 or by email

 

Photo: Kim Greiner

 

 

Programme for the opening of the Darwin Exhibition:

Time: Friday 19 juni at 13.00 - 16.00 Venue: Café Væksthuset, LIFE – Faculty of Life Science, Grønnegårdsvej, 1870 Frederiksberg C

 

Programme: (the opening will take place in Danish)

13:15 Official opening by the Dean, Per Holten-Andersen 13:25 A toast in beer and berry juice 13:30 Darwin and the Origin of the Cultivated Species. Associate Professor Thure Hauser, Department of Agriculture and Ecology 13:45 Cultivated plants of the past and the future. Professor Birger Lindberg Møller, Department of Plantbiology and Biotechnology 14:00 Survival of the fittest- beer product IS natural selection. Associate Professor Henrik Siegumfeldt, Department of Food Science. 14:30 Tour of the exhibition guided by Associate Professor Thure Hauser and the gardeners.